Barclaycard, which processes nearly half of the UK’s credit and debit
card transactions, today announced a new agreement with Alipay, the
world’s leading payment and lifestyle platform, which will allow
retailers to accept Alipay transactions in stores across the UK.

Building on a successful pilot over the past two years, the new
agreement will enable UK retailers to take full advantage of the growing
volume and buying power of Chinese visitors. In addition to the UK’s
393,000 Chinese residents1 and 95,000 Chinese students2,
tourists from China represent an increasingly important customer segment
for retailers. VisitBritain is expecting 483,000 visits from China in
2019, up 43 per cent on 2017, with Chinese visitors expected to spend
more than £1 billion this year, up 50 per cent, moving it well into the
UK’s top 10 tourism markets3. The increase in market size is
also demonstrated by the fact that the number of Alipay users in the UK
has doubled in the last year.

By accepting Alipay, the world's most-used app in 2018 outside of social
apps according to App Annie4, retailers will be able to
capitalise on the growing appetite of Chinese tourists to use mobile
payments over cash while abroad. According to a 2018 survey conducted by
Nielsen, the vast majority (93 per cent) of Chinese tourists said they
would likely spend more in a store that accepted mobile payments. In
addition, among the merchants surveyed that had adopted Alipay, nearly
60 per cent said that they had clearly seen growth in both foot traffic
and revenue5.

The new agreement will enable UK retailers to accept in-store Alipay
payments without replacing their existing point-of-sale system, allowing
them to take advantage of the boom in Chinese tourism without disrupting
their existing customer experience6. Retailers will also
benefit from being at the fingertips of hundreds of millions of
highly-engaged Alipay users, who will be able to search for outlets near
their location to find out details such as opening hours, directions,
and whether there are any discounts available.

Alipay serves over one billion users worldwide together with local
e-wallet partners, and this new agreement offers its Chinese users
travelling in the UK the familiar mobile payment and lifestyle
experience they enjoy at home, as well as Alipay’s competitive foreign
exchange rate.

Feedback from retailers has been incredibly positive; Barclaycard is
already in discussions with around 70 clients interested in becoming
early adopters.

“Thanks to the significant investments we’ve made in our platform, our
clients have access to a growing range of payment types, each of which
can help them increase market share by meeting the needs of new
customers.

“Our new agreement with Alipay gives retailers a vital tool to help them
seize the revenue opportunity posed by the growth of Chinese visitors to
the UK. At the same time, Alipay users will benefit from a more
convenient and familiar in-store payments process – enhancing their
overall shopping experience.”

Roland Palmer, Head of Europe, Middle East and Africa at Alipay, said:

“Alipay is excited to announce that it will be working with Barclaycard
to provide visitors from China with the mobile payment experience that
they are already familiar with. Through this strategic partnership,
Alipay will now be able to offer many more UK merchants the opportunity
to connect and engage with a growing number of Chinese visitors. This is
another step forwards in our vision to offer Chinese tourists a seamless
travel and payment experience when travelling overseas.”

6: In order to activate the new Alipay functionality,
Barclaycard has created an API which retailers can share with their
point-of-sale (POS) software supplier to facilitate integration into the
POS system.

About Barclaycard

Barclaycard, part of Barclays Bank PLC, is a leading global payment
business that helps consumers, retailers and businesses to make and take
payments flexibly, and to access short-term credit and point-of-sale
finance. In 2018 we processed nearly £268bn in transactions globally.
Barclaycard is a pioneer of new forms of payment and is at the forefront
of developing viable contactless and mobile payment schemes for today
and cutting-edge forms of payment for the future. We also partner with a
wide range of organisations across the globe to offer their customers or
members payment options and credit.

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About Alipay

Operated by Ant Financial Services Group, Alipay is the world’s leading
payment and lifestyle platform. Launched in 2004, Alipay currently
serves over 1 billion users with its local e-wallets partners. Over the
years, Alipay has evolved from a digital wallet to a lifestyle enabler.
Users can hail a taxi, book a hotel, buy movie tickets, pay utility
bills, make appointments with doctors, or purchase wealth management
products directly from within the app. In addition to online payments,
Alipay is expanding to in-store offline payments both inside and outside
of China. Alipay’s in-store payment service covers over 50 countries and
regions across the world, and tax reimbursement via Alipay is supported
in 35 countries and regions. Alipay works with over 250 overseas
financial institutions and payment solution providers to enable
cross-border payments for Chinese travelling overseas and overseas
customers who purchase products from Chinese e-commerce sites. Alipay
currently supports 27 currencies.